Walesa To Pursue Presidency Lech Walesa Speaks At A Rally In Gdansk, Poland, On Tuesday.reuters Photo

April 11, 1990|Chicago Tribune

WARSAW -- Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, the electrician-turned-hero who helped inspire the anti-Communist movement sweeping Eastern Europe, said on Tuesday that he will run for president of Poland.

Reluctantly confirming his long-awaited entry into politics, Walesa said he would have preferred to delay the announcement but was forced into a corner by colleagues who leaked his intentions to the media.

``They said it too early and I may lose due to that,`` Walesa told the Polish news agency, PAP. ``Well, we have freedom of the press. I confirm my decision to run.``

Poland`s president, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, is only nine months into a six-year term, but there has been growing speculation that the Solidarity- dominated Parliament may call new elections.

Walesa told PAP he wants to become president to inspire greater reforms in Poland, which twice during the last decade has pioneered dramatic changes in Eastern Europe only to lag behind each time.

Last year, Poland became the first country in Eastern Europe to topple a Communist government. Now it is one of the last countries in Eastern Europe with a Communist president.

``We must ... eliminate old arrangements,`` Walesa said on Tuesday night, apparently a reference to the deal that made Jaruzelski president.

Jaruzelski was elected by a narrow vote in Parliament in July with Solidarity`s support. One month later, the Communist government stepped down and Solidarity activist Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected to the post of prime minister.

That complicated bargain was typical of the two men who have dominated Poland`s see-saw history for the past decade.

Jaruzelski, 66, is the consummate political chameleon who somehow transformed himself from the iron-fisted architect of martial law in 1981 to the ``president of national reconciliation`` in 1989.

Walesa, 46, is the consummate political manipulator who somehow went from being an out-of-work electrician to leadership of the world`s best-known trade union and a Nobel Peace Prize in only three years.

Word of Walesa`s decision to run for president came on the eve of an official state visit to Moscow by Jaruzelski. PAP said Jaruzelski would meet Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss ``a new type of interstate relations based on respect for sovereignty, equal rights and partnership.``

Walesa`s closest aides have been hinting for months that the Solidarity leader would finally enter politics. Last year, when Mazowiecki was elected as Poland`s first non-Communist prime minister in 45 years, there had been strong speculation that Walesa would be given the post.

Solidarity strategists downplayed the idea at the time, saying Walesa was the independent trade union`s last and most valuable political asset. They said it would be foolish to risk having Walesa lead a government with all the odds stacked against it -- a battered economy, a disheartened bureaucracy and a chaotic infrastructure.

Instead, Solidarity nominated Mazowiecki, hoping he could serve as a transitional leader.

In the eight months since coming to power, Mazowiecki has tackled many of the nation`s seemingly insoluble problems. The economy is still in shambles but improving slowly. The bureaucracy has been streamlined and rejuvenated.

A quiet behind-the-scenes adviser one year ago, Mazowiecki now is the most popular man in Poland. Public opinion polls taken last month put his approval rating at 89 percent, 10 points higher than Walesa.